Salemi wants legacy from Boulder Creek
The Plain Dealer July 8, 2002
By George Sweda
Joe Salemi doesn’t want to be known as the next Donald Ross, A.W. Tillinghast, Robert Trent Jones, Pete Dye or Tom Fazio. He’d rather be listed with the likes of George Crump or H.C. Fownes.
The late Ross, Tillinghast, Jones and the still very active Dye and Fazio are among the world’s best golf course architects. Crump and Fownes each designed only one course – but each is among the best in the world – a legacy to their designed Pine Valley in New Jersey, considered by many as the best course in the world. Fownes designed Oakmont Country Club near Pittsburgh, a longtime fixture among major championship venues.
With the work of Crump and Fownes in mind, Salemi just opened nine holes of his own Boulder Creek Golf Club in Streetsboro, and upscale public course that sits adjacent to the Ohio Turnpike near Ohio 43.
Salemi, 47, grew up in Seven Hills, attended Normandy High School and later earned a business degree from Ohio State before getting involved in commercial and residential development.
He started work on Boulder Creek 3/1/2 years ago and eventually moved more than 1 million cubic yards of dirt. The fact his father owns Central Excavating helps. Half of the 200-acre site was once a Christmas tree farm, the other half was a farm. The land has its share of huge boulders, hence the course name and the prominent boulders than line a man-made waterfall at the seventh hole.
Having read the works of Ross, Tillinghast and the more contemporary Tom Doak and Michael Hurdzan, Salemi laid out the course himself. “There isn’t just one book you can read,” he said.
First, he used aerial photos for planning purposes, the trudged through the wooded part of the site and eventually slowly clearing the layout, not once, but three times. “Each time, we cleared out a little more until we got what we wanted,” he said. “Sometimes, I’d get lost on the property. When I did, I just listened for the traffic noise along the turnpike.”
Like Dye, Salemi had no set of drawings. Like Dye, the course was literally built in the field.
Today’s golf courses aren’t built with the owner also being the designer, general contractor, irrigation contractor and turf specialist. That alone makes Boulder Creek somewhat unique.
Although he’s a member at Silver Lake Country Club in Akron, Salemi says: “I’m not a country club guy. I just like to play golf and there aren’t that many places for the public to enjoy the country club experience.”
The result is a course that will humble a lot of players, but also leave them wanting more.
Boulder Creek has five set of tees ranging from 7,173 yards from the back to a more friendly 5,048 up front. Measurements in between 6,660, 6,132 and 5,586.
Par is 72 or 73 depending on how the ninth hole is set up. Already selected as one of THE Plain Dealer’s Elite 18, the ninth can play 492 yards from the back tees as a long par 4 in a tournament set up. It’s still a good four from the blue tees (455 yards) with a second shot required over a lake to a peninsula green.
The front nine that is currently open has gentle toll compared to the most hilly scenic back side with Salemi hopes to open Aug. 1.
The course starts and ends with a couple of dramatic par 5s, the 586-yard first (blue tees) and the 595-yard 18th (also blue tees). There’s also the island green, par-3 17th, which can play from 106 to 175 yards, and the unique par-5 sixth with a split fairway offering players who take the tighter tee shot down the left side an easier second shot, but leaving a good chance for birdie for those who take the more open right side where the second shot Is over a huge waste bunker.
Asked whether he’d do a project like Boulder Creek again, Salemi quickly answered: “No, not again. It took too much out of me.”